Takayama Festival Float Exhibition Hall (Yatai Kaikan)

Four of the elaborate Takayama Festival floats on year-round display

The Yatai Kaikan, in the precincts of Sakurayama Hachiman-gū, displays four of the eleven elaborate festival floats (yatai) used in the autumn Takayama Festival. Each is around six metres tall, lacquered, gilded and decorated with mechanical karakuri puppets that bow and write characters when the festival is in full swing.

A short film shows the floats in motion. The yatai are rotated through the display three times a year so repeat visitors will see different ones. The ticket also gives access to the small Sakurayama Nikkō-kan next door, which displays an extraordinarily detailed scale model of Nikkō Tōshō-gū.

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The yatai floats include some of the most sophisticated 18th- and 19th-century mechanical karakuri dolls in Japan. The figures, mounted on the upper decks, bow, dance and write characters with brush and ink as the float is paraded. Several still use the original Edo-era mechanisms — strings, pulleys and wooden cams worked from inside the float.